My eyelashes are getting stuck together, and the Feed

OK this is one I don’t get very often, thank [$DEITY]. When I woke up this morning not only were my eyelids stuck together but when I got those separated a new horror was graced upon me by having the eyelashes glued together. Not just the ones on the same eyelid but across the eye. My eyelashes now look like I randomly grabbed them and pulled them out in bunches, because that is pretty much what happened to them. Let me tell you that was uncomfortable getting my face operational this morning.

On another front, I have been trying to figure out how to make the metals I have to work with work for the extended stem project to get my knees out of Francis/es’ handlebars. Specifically how to cut the donor stem for welding and the 1″ OD tubing to size without maiming myself. Ordinarily I would just clamp the workpiece in my vice and use either a hacksaw or the zip wheel on the angle grinder to cut the materials. The issue is I can’t stand closer than 4 feet from the vice because of all the junk in the garage (junk that isn’t mine to mess with). If it was my junk I would just move it from one side of the garage to the other, but as it isn’t my junk (and the other side of the garage has just as much if not more other people’s junk) I’m stymied. I think I could get Mrs. the Poet to stand on the 1″ OD tubing at the edge of the patio so I could cut that, but the donor stem I may have to freehand the cut holding it in my off hand while cutting with my dominant hand. Whee!

Up first many people (people who are not me) have been saying for quite a while that if you want to commit random murder your best bet is to run into a cyclist with your cat and claim “he swerved right in front of me!” and you’ll get a consoling pat on the back and sent on your way. Turns out we were not far from the truth. Freakonomics on murder by car I can’t get the podcast, but the summary pretty much covers everything I have been saying here for the last 5 and a half years.

I know I’m sometimes accused of jumping to conclusions, but how do they know the cyclist’s direction of travel? Wrong-way cyclist recovering after Tarrytown collision, cops say OK maybe if the impact site on the SUV is on the side opposite the direction traffic was supposed to come from … And seriously people, don’t ride salmon more than the few feet it takes to get properly oriented to the direction of travel. Looking at the site it looks like this would be an area where bicycles would have completely grade-separated infrastructure in the Dutch model, so infrastructure would definitely prevented this wreck.

Update on a CA cyclist severely injured in a hit-and-run. San Jose cyclist recovers after hit-and-run The cyclist was bounced from one car into another one and the first car fled the scene without anyone getting a good look. From the description this wreck scene needed some traffic calming to reduce speeds and give cyclists more reaction time.

A wreck in the Great White North leaves a cyclist in hospital. Cyclist seriously injured after crash near Shakespeare So far this appears to be a single vehicle wreck with the cyclist somehow losing control over the bike at high speed. It could have been a case of “the wobs” as the cyclist passed through a critical speed range. Without more information on what actually caused the loss of control I can’t say how to avoid or prevent a similar wreck.

Our Daily Ted is just chock full of good stuff today. Morning Links: Pro cycling tours kickoff, the Bieb take a pedacab and six-year old cyclists come to blows

Somebody call the “Wahhmbulance” for this cretin in Oz. Don’t take cycling risks Translation, “Don’t ride a bike anywhere near where I drive because I’m too lazy to look out and not run you over.” FTFY mate. And if headlights from oncoming vehicles are reflecting off drops on your windshield, you better have your wipers going to remove those drops from your field of vision. Seriously, this dud (was going to say “dude” but “dud” fits so much better) complains that people wearing normal rain gear are hard to see, then he should stop driving when he can’t see and avoid obstacles in the road. It really is just that simple, stop using your death machine for transportation when weather conditions mean you can’t operate it safely.

More from a column that shows on BikingInLA periodically. Insurance Companies Are Not Your Friend

Last link, the suit we need when we ride a bike outside of the Netherlands. A Suit Designed for Biking to Work and Taking Meetings In the Netherlands bikes and infrastructure are built so that a person can wear a suit (sans tie of course) to work while riding a bike to get there. Here where bicycle commuting is an extreme sport with a high probability of injury or death, you need to wear clothing suitable for extreme sports.

And those are all the links that gave me fits or giggles today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus